"God is Love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." - 1 Jn 4:16



Saturday, July 31

Midnight List

1. I need a language plan.
2. I have more in common with Attachment Parenting than I realized.
3. My parenting opinions have changed drastically since actually having a child.
4. I'm so far behind on housework it isn't even funny.
5. I should be sleeping.
6. Everyone else in the house is sleeping.
7. WHY AM I NOT SLEEPING?!
8. Rice crackers are yummy.
9. I've discovered card making. Instant gratification. I think I'm in love.
10. I married the love of my life :D.
11. I gave birth to another love of my life :D.
12. Life's pretty cool.

Tuesday, July 27

IMPORTANT!

A fellow milspouse blogger recently posted this reminder that we all need to be careful in daily life, but especially on the web.  Please take a moment to read the post and evaluate whether or not you could make improvements in your own OPSEC or PERSEC.  Pass the message along and stay safe!

Top 10 Reasons Why Mil Spuse Bloggers MUST Practice OPSEC

Thursday, July 22

Our Stash

I think cloth diapering has grown to a cult-like obsession!  Eesh!

The cloth diapers of yesteryear are being swallowed up by the hundreds, maybe THOUSANDS, of new, modern, funky, recycled, cute, weird, practical, crunchy, fantastic diapers and diapering products available from one corner of the earth to the other corner of the web these days.  I have spent DAYS researching, bookmarking, highlighting, and comparing more diaper options than I ever realized existed before we had our little one.

I've decided something.

I don't NEED all those crazy options that are out there!  Don't get me wrong, many of them look great, but they just don't fit with our priorities.  My amazing husband didn't even bat an eye when I told him I wanted to consider cloth diapering our kiddos (current and future).  His only request (as it usually is) was that if there were going to be options, please limit them as much as possible.  No prob.  I googled, I searched, I read, I sifted, I consulted, I scoured, I skimmed till my eyes crossed.  I had some great pointers from one CDing mama in particular - to whom I am eternally grateful :)!  I finally came up with a list of priorities (in order):

  1. Health.  My family historically has sensitive skin, and I've seen the nasty rashes kids can get from unhealthy diapering practices.
  2. Cost.  Did you know some diaper covers can run you upwards of $80.... each?
  3. Ease of use.  I don't know any parent that can actually use all her brain cells when she is up for the 4th time that night with a squeaky, hungry, drooly, poopy baby.
  4. Fast-drying.  Our dryer sucks.  Welcome to Japan.
  5. Longevity.  The whole point of using cloth dipes is to be able to REUSE them.  Why would I want to buy a new set every time we have another kid?

Following these parameters and a bit of experimenting during our little one's newborn stage, here's what we've settled on:
That's it.  Nothing special, nothing fancy.  Affordable (yes, it was an investment to begin with, but not nearly as large of an investment as most other diapering options out there), multipurpose (those dipes make great burp rags, doublers, etc.!), and cute to boot :).  We tried some of the other "easier" options such as fitteds and All-In-Ones (AIOs), but as my (did I tell you how amazing he is?) dear husband pointed out, they're really not any more or less complicated than prefolds, snappies, and covers.  I love that man!

The only concession we are making to more "simple" diapers is a half-dozen Thirsties Duo Diapers we have in the mail.  Changing diapers in Japan can be interesting on occasion.  We've been using disposables while out and about because we thought it might make life simpler (changing a prefold does require a smidge more time and room than changing a disposable).  Problem? No trash bins in the bathrooms.  Now if we have to carry around the dirty diaper anyway, then why on earth are we wasting the money, health benefits, and land-fill space on disposables in the first place?

Challenges: our dryer can't handle anything thicker than a prefold and I am not thrilled at the idea of unstuffing dirty pocket diapers.  Solution? The Duo dipes are "sleeve" diapers - every review I've read says the inserts no kidding wash out of the diapers in the washing machine.  Hallelujah!  Diaper changes as fast as a disposable, healthy as cloth dipes, AND I don't have to get my hands dirty?  I'm all there :D.  We'll see how it goes - the trial run will be while we're visiting in the States.

I suppose I also ought to share what we use to round out our cloth diapering system:
  • Cloth wipes (purchased and cut up from old receiving blankets)
  • Wipes spray (don't have a strong opinion on this, but we've been satisfied with these so far)
  • Country Save powder detergent (we can use it on ALL our laundry - it gets my husband's mechanic's uniforms clean yet is so gentle on our baby's skin we've never had any residue problems or irritation due to laundry)
  • Wet bags and pail liners - can't live without 'em!
Well that's it.  That's our stash.  It might not look as fancy as some other people's, or it might look more expensive than others', but we like it - it works for us.  Feel free to pester us with questions or just shake your head and think we're crazy! :)

Military Tides

PCS Season.  Deployments.  TDYs.  Retirements.  Changes of Command.  Promotions.  Lots of things going on right now.  People we love have moved on to new places and new faces appear daily.

This is the life we have chosen.  Most days I like it, some days I love it, and some days I just call it a scrap and move on.

Right now we're focused on an upcoming deployment.  Not totally unexpected, but not exactly planned-ahead either.  We had not-so-secretly hoped dh wouldn't deploy while we were stationed here, but that was silly thinking and we knew it.  Uncle Sam must have heard our quiet chatter and decided to remind us who's in charge of where/when we go.

So.  Deployment it is.

We've done two deployments so far, and learned different things from each.  This will be our first while stationed overseas and (more significantly) our first with a little one.

The upsides:
-Daddy was here for our little one's whole "growing time" (i.e. my pregnancy) AND the delivery (one of my biggest fears with the military has always been that I'll have to "go it alone" during a delivery)
-he's seen lots of milestones including first bath, first smile, first roll, pushing up, hands and knees, and hopefully crawling before he goes (pretty likely the way dd is hanging out on all fours these days!)
-Skype.
-he's not as likely to deploy again for (hopefully) awhile
-he can bring his bike (he's training for a triatholon :) )
-we get to visit family/friends in the States before he goes
-the support here is amazing - so much better than our last base!!!!!

I'm trying not to focus on the downsides right now.  We're on quite a short timeline and frankly we don't have time to mope.  That's probably best :).

We're going to need some help though and I know that.  If I learned anything during my pregnany it's that people genuinely want to help and I genuinely need to accept it - for my health and my sanity.

This is why I'm asking you guys - what advice can you give for making the most of a deployment with a little one?  It's a "short" deployment and I know both dh and I can handle it just fine (lots of prayers and good communication are key!), but I'm worried our little one is going to take it hard.  Will she know who he is when he comes home?  Will she sleep as well while he's gone?  Can I make her smile as big as she does for her Daddy?  I'm all ears for tips.

Sunday, July 4

Diaper Bag: Update

Yay for free stuff that rocks!

After many (way too many) hours searching the web and scouring the sparse selection at the BX, I gave up on trying to find the perfect diaper bag and just made one.  Note - I am NOT a seamstress.  I actually had to go through and watch some online video tutorials so I could run the sewing maching without killing anything...

So, long story short, here's the bag!



  • filled with sposies at the moment, but designed to fit up to 8 cloth dipes (so probably 4 cloth dipes plus change of clothes, toy etc. - enough for half a day out or so)
  • cell phone, small notepad, and pens are easy-access on the side :)
  • Wipes, bibs, paci, bags, and mama's stuff fit in the outside pockets so no rummaging in the bag for what we need
  • side pocket fits a water bottle or baby bottle - heck yeah!
  • 100% machine washable

Used an old pair of my husband's ABUs, a shirt I found free at Airman's Attic on base, and the strap from a bag I also found for free at Airman's Attic.  The only thing I bought was thread.  Wahoo!

Mission Accomplished :D